VSN Presents: S92 Houston Bulls Deep Dive!

[McLovin 470]

(graphic pending )
VSN Presents: S92 Houston Bulls Deep Dive!

 

Welcome to this week's edition of VSN’s coverage of S92 in the VHLM! Today we got a special one for you, as we’ll be doing a deep dive into the Houston Bulls, covering the success their team has had this season, as well as some individual stories and achievements they’ve had. With all being said, let’s take a look at the Bulls!

 

Let’s start with the basics! The Bulls are enjoying a very comfortable season right now, putting up a respectable 22-13-3 record as of writing this. Having one of the best offenses in the league has certainly helped, with them bolstering a commendable 134 goals for, tied for 4th in the entire league! The defense and goaltending are also very strong and capable of locking down games for them, as they’ve only allowed 122 goals against in an otherwise very offensively skilled S92 so far. They’re definitely one of the teams that benefitted the most from the recruitment drive and massive influx of waiver players in the offseason and first half of the regular season. Depth has been a problem for many teams in the VHLM in recent memory, with last season especially being the highlight of the player drought, where some teams had as few as two or three players rostered TOTAL. With the drive however, the Bulls have been able to roster an entire team's worth of players in all three primary positions, and they have utilized a great deal of varying skills and abilities that have granted them a very good team this season. There’s many factors that play into the Bulls success so far, and many of them will be covered in today’s article, but we at VSN thought it was a good idea to begin doing deep dives into various teams and points in time in the VHLM’s rich and vast history, and cover a team that is very deserving of its own article. 

 

Part of this success has been found in their trading and signings, as General Manager @AJW has been hard at work this season to put the best team on the ice as possible! On draft day, AJW made a trade to acquire Miami’s second in the S92 draft for a 3rd and 4th in the same draft. That player ended up becoming Chris Reynolds Jr @Crstats23, who’s put up a very strong two-way game for them, throwing hits, blocking shots, and being an over point-per-game player for Houston! Losing out on Joe Shmo @matt sovick & Onyekachukwu Chidieber Oluwaseun @TenIQ hurts in the short term, as both players are doing great in their own regards, but Chris Reynolds Jr has been a phenomenal player for them, so the trade seems to be working out well thus far! The second trade made by AJW this season was to pick up long-time Aces forward Barry McOckiner @LanerDUST for a S93 3rd round pick. This is a great trade for Houston, as Barry has put up solid seasons with the Aces in the past, including back to back 60+ point seasons, and has definitely contributed up and down the stat sheet for them too. He’s put up a 31 point campaign in the 38 games played so far, as well as being third on the team in hits. His two-way game complements the style of play Houston is going for this season, in which they utilize players with skill on both ends of the ice, and can lock down the opponent wherever they find themselves. 

 

Moving along, the Bulls have also been blessed with a large number of quality waiver pickups this season too. Some of the most notable being forwards Nathan Ecker @Nathan_8, & Filip Zinek @FiZi, who’re both putting up great seasons with 10 goals & 17 assists, 13 goals & 11 assists respectively. Defensemen Benjamin Adbenduct @Schnee & Lucy Leitner @LucyXpher were also brought on, who’re both having incredibly strong seasons offensively, with well over a point-per-game seasons being put up by them too. Goaltender Ondrej Vencko @Mutti was also brought in as the primary starting goalie for the Bulls, and has had very clutch games while maintaining a very respectable number of stats in an otherwise very offensively minded league this season, to which he is to be commended for that alone. The ability of AJW to find gems in waivers, and put them in positions to allow them and the team great success has been phenomenal, and will definitely go down as some of the best FA pickups of the season. It’s a very well thought out short term process, but that does raise the question of what it means for the future. Retaining these players that don’t immediately move onto the E after this season should also be a big priority of Houston, and it will be interesting to see how the management team goes about achieving this goal in the coming draft as they only hold 2 picks in the top 30 of S93’s draft class. This in mind, there may have to be a bit of a healthy competition for who earns those two picks between the players, that being Houston doesn’t acquire more picks, or the players aren’t snagged up by other teams looking to emulate Houston this season. Regardless, no competent manager ever goes into the off season without a plan, and the Bulls management team have proven quite well this season at just how well versed they are in the art of team building.

 

Approaching the end of this article, it’d be worth it to predict a bit of how well the team is projected to become with player growth and already existing line chemistry considered. With this remarkably strong team as is though, and Houstons indication that they don’t intend to slow down the improvements at all, I’d expect an all in push to the playoffs, and a very depth filled and experienced team to transition into the future. Houston is certainly a dark horse candidate for the Founder’s Cup, and has every piece needed and then some to make that dream a reality. Players like Trimiskez Artav @jake & Chris Reynolds Jr, the aforementioned defensemen like Lucy Leitner and Benjamin Abenduct, all of them are going to be leaned on especially heavily going into this second half of the season, and already seem to be absolutely thriving under the pressure. The future is incredibly bright for Houston, so I’m personally very excited to see how all the players do, and looking forward to following their careers into the VHLM, the VHLE and VHL proper. 

 

 

All said, the Bulls are a remarkably well run team. AJW & Nathan_8 have put together a very strong team, and are a model example of what a team should look like, both in the standings, as well as in the locker room. Every interaction I’ve had with a member of the management or on ice players has been an absolutely fantastic one, and I definitely find myself being a fan of theirs despite actively general managing against them (oops). With that in mind, here’s to a very successful season for the Bulls!

[AJW 2,196]

LETS GO BULLS Great article McLovin

[LucyXpher 1,578]

Awesome article! I really appreciate you taking the time to highlight our team and actually dig into how our roster is constructed this season.  AJW has done an incredible job, as you noted, of finding and signing free agents so that we can now boast a solid group of competitive VHLM players with potential to get better still.  I think it's cool when people write stuff like this about other teams and players, especially when they're a potential rival or competitor, it really adds some perspective and validation to the league and it contributes to the feeling of legitimacy when your team is on a good run, or your player is popping off.  I hope to write more articles like this highlighting other teams and players going forward and this is a great example of how it's done.  

 

9.5/10

02/04/24

[McLovin 470]

3 hours ago, LucyXpher said:

I think it's cool when people write stuff like this about other teams and players, especially when they're a potential rival or competitor, it really adds some perspective and validation to the league and it contributes to the feeling of legitimacy when your team is on a good run, or your player is popping off.

I can confidently say writing this whole this article was so much fun, and the more I looked into the team, the more I realized y'all are loaded for a great push! Here's hoping you guys go far in the playoffs! (so long as you don't face Las Vegas in it )

[Mysterious_Fish 405]

2 hours ago, McLovin said:

Here's hoping you guys go far in the playoffs! (so long as you don't face Las Vegas in it )

Um what about San Diego

[McLovin 470]

Claiming 2/2